The Smuttynose brand is already distributed throughout L. Knife & Son’s networks in Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Wisconsin. In a press release, Smuttynose cited ‘familiarity’ with the distributor group as one reason for the addition of California.

“We’ve shown strong growth in other L. Knife markets and they certainly know our beers,” Smuttynose founder and president Peter Egelston said in the release. “I have faith that we will see similar results in the California market, even though it’s a different landscape because we’re both starting fresh.”

California is the 24th state where beers from the brewery are currently sold. The first shipment will include Smuttynose’s bottled Big Beer Series releases — Homunculus and Rhye IPA — as well as three kegs of Cluster’s Last Stand, the brewery’s collaboration with Stone Brewing Co. Those kegs have been earmarked for Stone Brewing’s headquarters in Escondido, Calif. Additionally, kegs of Smuttynose Finestkind IPA will make their way to the Golden State.

Smuttynose has been brewing beer since 1994, but we trace our roots back through the early years of craft brewing, to the opening of the Northampton Brewery in 1987 and the Portsmouth Brewery in 1991....